Gauff and her fans were reacting excitedly to quite a point,
one in which the 18-year-old Floridian raced to her right for a defensive
forehand, then changed directions to sprint and slide into a backhand that drew
a netted volley from Zhang. Just four points later, Gauff was a quarterfinalist
at Flushing Meadows for the first time.
Gauff, the French Open runner-up in June, came back in each
set to beat China’s Zhang 7-5, 7-5 on Sunday to become the youngest American to
make it this far at the U.S. Open since Melanie Oudin was 17 in 2009.
“Here, I can’t hear myself scream. Makes me want to do it
more. I think I’m feeding off the momentum a lot. I enjoy it,” said No. 12 seed
Gauff, who meets No. 17 Caroline Garcia of France on Tuesday. “New York is
bringing out a side of me that I haven’t had since I was 15, so it’s nice.”
Nick Kyrgios is playing much better than he ever has at
Flushing Meadows, too, building off the momentum of his run to the Wimbledon
final in July, and he eliminated defending champion and No. 1-ranked Daniil
Medvedev 7-6 (11), 3-6, 6-3, 6-2 on Sunday night.
The 23rd-seeded Kyrgios was up to some of his usual behavior
— warned for cursing, yelling at his guest box, playing to the crowd — but he
also outplayed Medvedev in a high-quality match.
“I’m just glad I’m finally able to show New York my talent,”
said Kyrgios, never past the third round at the U.S. Open until now. “I haven’t
had too many great trips here.”
He’ll play No. 27 seed Karen Khachanov on Tuesday, when the
other’s men’s quarterfinal on the top half of the bracket is 2022 French Open
runner-up Casper Ruud against 2021 Wimbledon runner-up Matteo Berrettini.
Medvedev will relinquish the top spot in the rankings after
the U.S. Open, with Ruud joining Rafael Nadal and Carlos Alcaraz as players
with a chance to replace him.
After trailing 5-4 in the opening set, then 5-3 in the
second, which she was a point from losing, Gauff was buoyed by spectators who
cheered her every point and chanted “Let’s go, Coco!” as the end neared. She
improved to 4-0 in Ashe this year after having never previously won a match at
the biggest arena in Grand Slam tennis.
How loud was it?
“It got so racuous in there that I got a headache. I had to take
an Advil,” said Gauff’s father, Corey. “I kept pinching myself. I’m like, ‘My
gosh, all of these people here for my daughter.’ You dream about this, but you
never know if you’re going to realize that. She was pumping herself up and they
responded to her. It sent chills up my spine.”
Zhang, at 33 the oldest woman to reach the fourth round,
said it was more noise than she’s ever heard at a match.
She praised Gauff’s play, calling her “a superstar” and
adding: “Everything is very good. She’s so much younger than me. Her energy is
so much better. She’s faster. She’s powerful.”
They competed mostly from the baseline, and the longer the
exchanges, the more success Gauff found: She claimed a 45-26 edge in points
that lasted five or more strokes.
Garcia is coming off a hard-court title at Cincinnati and
stretched her winning streak to 12 matches by defeating No. 29 Alison
Riske-Amritraj of the U.S. 6-4, 6-1.
“I’m super excited, actually, to play Coco — in U.S., in New
York, quarterfinal of a Slam. It’s great,” Garcia said.
The other quarterfinal on that half of the women’s field
will be between Ajla Tomljanovic, the player who beat Serena Williams in the
third round, and No. 5 Ons Jabeur, who was the runner-up at Wimbledon.
Tomljanovic got past Liudmila Samsonova 7-6 (8), 6-1 at Louis Armstrong Stadium
in a matchup between unseeded players, while Jabeur defeated No. 18 Veronika
Kudermetova 7-6 (1), 6-4.
Tomljanovic is a 29-year-old Australian who is now into her
third Grand Slam quarterfinal after making it that far at Wimbledon the past
two years. On Wednesday, Tomljanovic beat Williams in three sets in what is
expected to be the last match of the 23-time Grand Slam champion’s career.
In Gauff-Zhang, the whirring of the Ashe retractable roof
being pulled shut accompanied the start of the second set because of showers
that started soon after, and it took a while for the artificial lights to reach
full strength. The match proceeded, even though it was rather dark — and quite
humid — indoors.
Zhang started getting a bit better of the back-and-forth
midway through the second set, and when she hit a backhand winner of her own,
she broke to lead 5-3.
Last year’s U.S. Open doubles champion — she and Sam Stosur
beat Gauff and Caty McNally in the final — served to force a third set, and was
a point away from getting there, but Gauff steeled herself and stood her
ground.
That set point was frittered away when Zhang sent a backhand
long. Gauff smacked — what else? — a down-the-line backhand winner for her
third break point of that game, then delivered a good return to a corner that
drew a long backhand to make it 5-4 and start a four-game, match-closing run.
Everyone’s known how talented Gauff is for a while now.
After all, at 15, she became the youngest qualifier in Wimbledon history in
2019, beat Venus Williams in the first round of the main draw and made it all
the way to the fourth. There have been more steps along the way, more
achievements — last month, she became the second-youngest doubles No. 1 in WTA
history — and her ever-developing game — the most notable recent improvements
were to her forehand and second serve — keeps carrying her closer to the top of
the singles rankings and closer to a Grand Slam title.
And at this point, having the full sport of more than 20,000
folks in Ashe doesn’t hurt, either.
“She’s found a home there,” Dad said. “I hope she’s going to
play there for the rest of the tournament.” -AP